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UNR's in-state tuition gives a better return on investment than 75 percent of other schools' tuition options, according to a new report by Payscale.com.
That means it gives a better value than 75 percent of other schools examined by the financial website.

The University of Nevada, Reno ranks right at the 25 percent mark of colleges and universities in terms of its tuition's return on investment, according to a new report by Payscale.com.

That means it gives a better value than 75 percent of other schools examined by the financial website.

The site, which collects crowdsourced employment data, looked at alumni earnings to determine how much a typical graduate should earn after graduation in 20 years of working, minus what they would have earned as a high school graduate and the cost of college (tuition, room and board, books and supplies).

For UNR, a graduate's net return on investment after 20 years — if they didn't get financial aid and paid in-state tuition — would be $306,400, which is a 7.3 percent return on investment for tuition costs of $103,600.

This put UNR at No. 329 out of 1310. For those paying out-of-state tuition, UNR ranked 533 with a 4.8 percent return on investment.

For a few comparisons, Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah ranked much higher with a 10.9 percent return on investment, as did the University of Idaho in Moscow, with an 8.2 percent return on investment, and California State University – Sacramento at 7.1 percent. (CSUS ranked higher despite a lower ROI because the overall net earnings were higher at $310,500.)

The University of Nevada, Las Vegas ranked slightly lower than UNR but was basically the same, with a return on investment of about $5,000 less.

Payscale.com's top five best schools for return on investment, from best to slightly less great, are: Harvey Mudd College in Southern California, California Institute of Technology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford and the Colorado School of Mines (in-state tuition). The return on investment for all of these topped $780,000.

The five worst, from very worst to slightly less bad, are: Shaw University in North Carolina, Fayetteville State University in North Carolina (out-of-state tuition), Bluefield College in Virginia, Savannah State University in Georgia (out-of-state tuition) and the University of North Carolina at Asheville (out-of-state tuition). These all led to losses between $94,000 and $156,000.